Knesset rejects bill that would bar Netanyahu from forming government

The Knesset votes down a proposal to prevent lawmakers under indictment from forming a government, which would have prevented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from again assembling a coalition if new elections are held.

Fifty three lawmakers oppose the bill, with 37 voting in favor.

During the plenum vote, Netanyahu calls Opposition Leader Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party, who sponsored the bill, a “dictator.”

“The only place in the world where they pass laws like these are the darkest dictatorships like Iran and North Korea,” the premier says.

Netanyahu also mocks Lapid for lacking a high school diploma or college degree, suggesting that makes the opposition chief unfit to be prime minister, and says the Yesh Atid leader’s late father Tommy Lapid had opposed a similar bill when he was justice minister.

Lapid fires back by saying his father was speaking about different legislation.

“We can see the sweat from here, you know and are scared you’ll end up in jail,” Lapid says to Netanyahu. “You’re dad told you not to touch money. If you had listened to him you wouldn’t have three criminal cases.”

He also quotes Netanyahu saying former prime minister Ehud Olmert was unfit to serve as premier when he was under investigation for graft.